At the end of May, my boyfriend rented a car and drove me to NJ for my 2 month mission's trip at The Boardwalk Chapel.
I
remember being half awake, and looking out at the side mirror and
thinking, “The car is red.” It was a random acknowledgment of
color, like my brain usually likes to do – just an, 'oh, that's
nice' type of reaction... But it triggered a memory...
Back
in the Winter, my best friend, Faith, and I went to a conference at Calvin College on
the Holy Spirit, Spiritual Gifts, and the power of prayer. It was
very encouraging and helped me continue the learning process to pray
boldly, with joy, to a Father-God who loves me. As we learned about
different things, we'd often be told to break up into groups for
prayer.
Usually
when this would happen, I'd look around and go to the people I felt
led to be with. Though I was in a room full of unfamiliar people, I
went wherever my first instinct was. Sometimes Faith headed in my
same direction and we ended up with the same people – sometimes we
didn't... This time, I went up to two ladies about my grandmother's
age, we sat together, they laid hands on me, and we prayed. It was a
powerful time of prayer for some people and situations in my life,
but with what seemed like one odd, unknown bit: One of the ladies
asked, “Is your car red?”
I
told her no, my car is not red.
She
nodded, and explained she had a mental image of a red car...They went
back to praying for about a minute, before she said again, “What
color is your car?”
I
told her,”My car is silver... My dad's vehicle is red, but it's
a van.”
“I
just really feel like I need to pray about a red car.”
So
she prayed for my car. She prayed about this "red car". She prayed
about my dad's red van. She prayed about safety on the road for me, my
family, and that God would protect us.
It's
always good to pray for protection, and I took that prayer as it
seemed then – just another interesting part of that conference.
Triggered
in my half-awake state by the color, I remembered that story and told
it to Jimmy as we drove. He agreed that it was an interesting story,
and we continued talking about prayer and such.
Several
hours later, at about 9:30 at night as we drove down the highway, a
vehicle drifted into our lane and side-swiped our red car, and we veered off to the side of the highway. The first thing I remember saying as
we lurched to a stop was, “Thank God!”... We hadn't hit the guard
rail. We hadn't been physically hurt – not even bruised by the seat
belts... And suddenly, my recounting of the story from the afternoon
came back, and I knew... This is what she had prayed about. We were
safe in our red car. God had answered her faithful prayer, that none
of us at the time understood.
The world would tell you that this was a coincidence. I would tell you that I saw God answering prayer that He had given us to pray.
God speaks. He is not silent. He loves to remind us of how He watches over us, always... Even when we don't understand.
Blessings,
~ZA